


The Intelligent Jokers

by Deweydaliteraturefanatic



Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 08:21:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29204280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deweydaliteraturefanatic/pseuds/Deweydaliteraturefanatic
Summary: Two teenagers get thrown into a death game, and are forced to fight for their lives. As there are no respawns. They will bleed. They will sweat. They will cry. It’s just a matter of time.
Relationships: Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito/Sachi
Kudos: 1





	1. Back Unto The Breach

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: All properties and/or references belong to their respective owners, creator, and/or distributors.  
> This is my first Fanfic that I've posted on a website, so if it's bad, you know why .

“Finally.” I mutter while gazing at the clock on my dresser with a small box in my hand.“The servers are up for SAO”.  
I turn to my left and head towards the PC resting next to my desk. I boot it up as I sit down on the swivel chair in front of the desk. I turn on the monitor and insert the gaming disk into the computer. I plug in the headset and make sure the game is downloading properly while I wait for it to charge. I hear a beep and a buzz a few minutes later signifying the headset is charged and the game is ready to start.

‘You ready?’ I text on my phone as I put the headset on.  
‘Gimme a minute and I’ll be on. Don't forget, we meeting at the plains where we used to’  
‘Yeah yeah yeah, I know.’ I respond with a smirk pulling at my lips. ‘God I’m so excited. It's been , what, a year since the beta?’  
‘Around there, now shut up and get on I’ll see you in a bit’ ‘Good luck’  
‘Good luck to you as well’ I respond as I put the phone down to plug it in. ‘Can’t forget to do that again, school was hell without anything to read.’

I lay down in my bed wearing only my boxers and a long pajama bottom that has the symbol of a bat on the left thigh.  
“Link start.” I say confidently as my vision goes white and a rainbow of colors shoot towards me. 

Once the colors fly by me, my vision goes black and I find myself in front of a floating blue screen with black font for it’s writing.  
“Oh god. Is that Comic Sans?” I mutter in horror as I stare at the hovering screen. “Please tell me that I can change that in settings.” I say as I frantically swipe my left hand down only for nothing to happen. ‘Umm’ I think in confusion before another screen pops up in front of me.

“You can’t open the settings menu before you’ve character customization!”

‘Ah’ I think as I nod my head up and down in realization. ‘That makes sense’

“Hmm” I hum as I turn towards the customization menu once I’ve exited out of the message screen. “Lets see what we’ve got here.”

The customization menu is surprising in depth; allowing you to adjust every little part of your body, the color of your hair and that of your skin, the color of your iris and even the ‘whites’ of your eye.

‘I think I’ll just leave it as it is. It’s not like it’ll matter in the long run anyways. I’m not famous in any way so there’s no worry over being recognized.’ I decide as I turn towards the full body mirror towards my right. 

As I look into it I see a brown haired 15 year old staring back at me. He has hazel eyes that lean towards being grey more than brown and green. He has a slightly above average height for a boy his age, standing at 5’10” when he’s standing straight. He has a lean build that is tone enough to see noticeable definition in his muscle from a descent distance away. All in all, from what everyone tells him, he is a decently attractive young man.

‘Hmm, not that I’m complaining, but I don’t think the game’ll let me get away with playing in only my underwear, So I’ll have to choose a main color for my beginner set.’ I conclude as I press the small arrow pointing right at the bottom right of the floating menu, leading me to a new page that has a color wheel, with the option to change to a color palette. After looking at the options I have before me, I decide on having a dark grey color as the base color for my clothing.

Once I had decided on a color, my avatar shines a light grey, before it disappears and I’m in a set of clothing. I find myself wearing a dark grey short sleeved shirt with a sling around my torso that's a tan brown color. I look down to see that I’m wearing a black pair of trousers that are tucked into a pair of hard toed boots.

‘Not what I would personally pick out for myself to wear but I have to admit that I don’t look all that bad wearing it.’ I appraise as I look at myself in the full body mirror.

I look back at the menu and press the button that has “Start” written on it. My vision goes white before I find myself in a plaza where a multitude of people are standing and chatting to one another with animated gestures.

I hurriedly make my way out of the crowd and into the town connected to it. ‘I go straight here, then a left through this alley, and another left into the street. Follow the street until I come to the second four-way intersection where I make a right, and. Whala. I'm in the plain where we decided to find each other.’ 

There are a few people loitering around and exchanging tips and tricks with one another, and others fighting man sized boars. But none of them is the person I’m looking for. ‘Did I get here ear..’ “Uh” I grunt as something rams into me before I can finish my thought and force us to tumble across the ground, gathering an impressive amount of looks that are wondering what's going on.

“Who the hell...Don?!” I cry out in surprise as I glimpse the man who tackled me. It's a stout young man with thick, toned arms, who's in the later half of his teens. He has dirty blonde hair cut closely to his head, with blue eyes shining mischievously at me.  
“Shut the fuck up you dipshit. Don’t use my IRL name, use my gamer tag you fuck!!” The man standing over me yells with a chuckle.

I roll onto my back so I can take a look at his username and see “Gamer4Life”, floating under an orange plumbob, above his head. “Well fuck you too, Bitch.” I say back to him as I sweep his feet out from under him, hearing a ding originating above me. I look up at the ding and see another orange plumbob floating over me, the same kind that was floating over Gamer. 

¨What's that?¨ I ask as I point at the symbol above both of our heads. ¨Oh that.¨ He responds,¨Thats used to signify when a player has harmed another player. Green means that you haven´t harmed someone. Orange, to signify that you have harmed someone, and Red, to signify that you´ve PKed someone. The red stays with you forever, while the orange turns back to green after a couple of hours.¨

¨Ah, that's different from last time.¨I respond as I get up from my prone position. ¨So, lets see. The first order of business is to… kill some boar mobs if I remember correctly.¨ I state as I start heading towards a group of boras that haven't been touched yet by the other players. ¨Yes, you dumb piece of shit. What else could it have been?!¨ Don stares at me while he replies. ¨I don´t know,¨ I reply indignantly. ¨It could´ve been supply shopping for all I know!¨ 

I start heading towards the group of boars as I pull my sword out from my inventory. ¨Anyways, we better get started with XP grinding.¨  
“Alright let’s get this show on the road.” he states with a goofy smile, joining me in battle against the boars.

After a few hours of grinding and a level up from the both of us, we decide to call it a day and log out. 

“Gamer how do you feel about getting some pizza after we log out?” I state as I swipe my left hand down, opening the menu. I move my finger to where the log out was during the beta and find nothing there. “Gamer, just so you know the log out button isn’t where it was during beta so I’m going to dig around the menu to try and find it.”  
“Ight man, to answer your earlier question, yes I’m up for pizza after this. Just let me shower first and we’ll meet at my place again.” He says, finishing up the boar mob with a swing. “You sure?” I respond. “Why not my place this time?” I question while I scim through the menus faster, starting to get confused.  
“Wait,” I say as I raise my head to look at my age old friend. “I don’t think it’ll matter anyways, ‘cause I can’t find the logout button.” “Your shitting me, right.” He says with minor panic and disbelief in his voice. “You have to be, I got work early tomorrow.” “Same with me, so don’t think you're the only one panicking!” I say roughly starting to frantically go over the menus a third time, hoping against hope that I’ll find the logout symbol.

Before he can reply, we start glowing white with a blue outline. When our vision clears up, we find ourselves back at the spawn plaza that we first appeared in. There are other people showing up in the same white and blue flashes that we did. 

I look at Don and tell him, “We have to keep our calm here. While yes we don’t know what's happening, we’ve got to prepare for the worst. If we get separated, regroup at the main towns of the floor, same goes for the other floors as well if we’re separated that far.”  
He looks at me with a frantic look in his eyes, “I know man, I know.”  
Before I can reply to him, and wow that getting annoying, hexagon starts appearing in the air, turning red and dripping dark red blood that starts collecting as an orb floating in front of the forcefully gathered crowd. After a couple of seconds, the orb of blood morphs into a figure with an icon floating above it’s head.  
“Immortal object”  
“What does that mean?!” I whisper loudly to Don. “I think that it means that we can’t kill it, now pay attention, it’s started talking.” 

I turn to look at the figure at Don’s suggestion, to realize he’s right, it has started talking.

“Attention, players. Welcome to my world.” It states in a loud, booming voice.

‘The hell does it mean “my world”?’ I question as I start to feel the hairs on the back of my neck start to rise. ‘Uh oh, that's never a good sign.’

“My name is Kayaba Akihiko. As of this moment, I am the sole person who can control this world.” It continues. “I'm sure you've already noticed that the logout button is missing from the main menu. But this is not a defect in the game…I repeat..this is not a defect in the game. It is a feature of Sword Art Online.”  
“A-a feature???” Someone yells out in confused horror. I agree with him silently as both me and Don look at each other in thinly disguised horror.  
“You cannot log out of SAO yourselves. And no one on the outside can shutdown or remove the NerveGear. Should this be attempted the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit a powerful microwave, destroying your brain and thus ending your life.”  
With the statement spoken, pandemonium breaks out in the crowd. Some people scream at him that he’s lying, others stand in shocked horror, and the rest break down into sobs.  
“Shit.” I mutter with dread. “That's not good.” “You couldn’t have said anything now could you?” My friend says sarcastically. “Now all he has to say is that when we die in game we die IRL.”  
“Don’t jinx it!!” I yell at him. With my luck that could always be a thing.  
“Unfortunately, several players' friends and families have ignored this warning and have attempted to remove the NerveGear. As a result, two hundred and thirteen players Are gone forever, from both Aincrad and the real world.” He continues, ignoring the increasingly agitated crowd.  
“Thank God that didn’t happen to us, am I right?” I say, trying to lighten the mood with a bad good that's in poor taste. Don just looks at me like there’s something mentally wrong with me. I just look back at him with an indignant look on my face.  
“As you can see, news organizations across the world are reporting all of this, including the deaths. Thus, you can assume that the danger of a NerveGear being removed is no minimal. I hope you will relax and attempt to clear the game. But I want you to remember this clearly. There is no longer any method to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be forever lost. And simultaneously the NerveGear will destroy your brain. There is only one means of escape. To complete the game. You are presently on the lowest floor of Aincrad, Floor 1. If you make your way through the dungeon and defeat the Floor Boss, you may advance to the next level. Defeat the boss on Floor 100, and you will clear the game.”

I whip towards Don, a remark on my lips when he replies with an indignant look on his face, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m sorry, I should’ve known better than to open my mouth with you around.”

“Finally, I've added a present to your item storage. Please see for yourself.”  
With a hesitant swipe of my left hand, I open the inventory and see a hand held mirror. I press it with my finger and it pops into being in my right hand. But before I can look into it, I hear gasps and people crying out in surprise. I snap my head up to see what's going on. When I fully comprehend what I’m seeing I let out a gasp of surprise. Everyone that has looked into the mirror, is glowing before they turn into someone else. Some people are changing height, others changing body proportions, and I even catch a few changing genders. I see two men arguing with each other about how one was more attractive and with that one responding that the other was a girl. I snorted at the sight of the two bickering. I finally look into my own without much care, knowing that nothing is going to even change when I look into it. When I look into the pink hand held mirror, I start glowing. Once I’ve finished glowing and can see again, I look into the mirror not expecting much to change. But when I do I blink in surprise, “Huh.” I mutter “They’ve added the scars and the moles, I forgot that I had them.” In the mirror I see my face relatively unchanged, except for a few minor things. There’s a small mole over the left side of my lip and another an inch from my right ear and a half an inch under my right eye. If you didn’t know better they could've been mistaken as freckles. There’s also an ugly scar between my eyebrows, that didn’t heal properly. “Well, at least I don’t have to worry about glasses now.” I say as I turn my head to look at Don, who hasn’t changed much. There’s a new scar here and there, a mole there, and another here. But all in all, nothing changed.  
“Right now,” He continues, drawing the gazes of everyone there. ”you're probably wondering, "why". Why would Kayaba Akihiko, developer of Sword Art Online and the Nerve Gear, do all this? My goal has already been achieved. I created Sword Art Online for one reason. To create this world and intervene in it. And now, it is complete. This ends the tutorial for the official Sword Art Online Launch. Good luck players.” He says, fading away into nothing. Leaving the players alone to do as they wish.  
“Well, shit. Looks like we’ll be missing work tomorrow.”


	2. One Hell of a Scare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A fight begins!!!

Disclaimer: All properties and/or references belong to their respective owners, creator, and/or distributors.

“Well, shit. Looks like we’ll be missing work tomorrow.” I say as the people around us break into hysterics. “That's what you're worried about?!” Don says as he gives me an incredulous look from my right. “Well, yeah.” I say looking back at him, “I was about to get a promotion as well. So of course I’m going to be a little annoyed.” I finish as I start heading out of town.

“Why are you annoyed at that and not at the fact that we’re playing hardcore mode on SAO?” Don replies as he catches up to me. I give him a ‘you know why look’ with a slight turn of my head. He mutters an ‘ah right’ while looking away sheepishly. “Anyways,” I start,”We better head out towards Horunka village for the Anneal Blade that can be found there. And yes. We will do some grinding on the way there, so don’t worry. Anyways I don’t know why you're so worried. We’re already level 2, so it’s not like we have to worry about anyone around us, for the most part at least.” We’ve entered the forest by now and it’s almost completely dark out. A couple minutes after we’ve entered the forest we encounter our first group of aggressive mobs since the announcement. 

We stumble into a clearing that's housing a group of 20 Lv. 3 goblins. “Wow.” I state in aw. “That's a lot of goblins, probably more than we can handle.” “ I think those aren’t just any old goblins, they’re a high level then us.” Don states with a hint of worry in his voice. “There’s also a Lv. 21 Hobgoblin that seems like it’s leading them.” Don points out. 

Once Don pointed them out, the Hobgoblin notices us and, with an order barked out, the group of goblins starts running at us. “Split up and RUN!!” I yell as I start running to the left. Don nods his head and books it to the right. “Don’t forget,” I yell. “Meet up at the village!” Don responds with a nod as he disappears into the trees, with 11 of the goblins following.

I turn back around to face the front upon noticing the rest of the group following me close behind.  
‘Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK’ I panic as I sprint away as fast as I can. I take another look behind me, only to see the hobgoblin closing in on me. ‘Why the hell is that mob level 21?! The floor boss isn’t even that high of a level!?’ I frantically think as I pull my sword from my inventory. ‘God I hope this works.’ I think as I turn around to sprint at it.

A ferocious smile grows on the hobgoblin's face as it notices me charging at it. It lets out a powerful rawr as it speeds up it’s charge. The hobgoblin takes a swing with it’s club. ‘Where the hell did it get that club from?!” I frantically think as I slide under it’s swing and between its legs, popping back up onto my feet behind it and resuming my dead sprint. When I close on the group of normal goblins, I take a swing at the closet one too me’s head and land a critical that kills it instantly. 

‘Whelp,’ I think as I kill it’ that was one of my dumber ideas. But thankfully, it worked. Now, I need to kill… two more and I get a level up. Wow it is disturbingly easy to level up early on and when you're against stronger mobs.’ I realize as I start my run again, charging at another goblin. I perform a Vorpal Strike that kills the one in front of me and heavily damages the one behind it. Right before I can finish off the injured goblin, I hear heavy footsteps behind me. I leap forward into the hurt goblin, slamming both it and me, into the ground, killing it and taking 2% off my health as I hear a ding. “Damn,” I mutter. ‘That hurt a surprising amount.’ I finish in my head. I flip myself onto my back to try and catch my breath. As I flip myself I notice the hobgoblin’s blood thirsty smile looking down at me. I roll out of the way as it swings its club down, launching me 5 feet away with the force created by the impact. “Fuck,” I gasp, trying to catch my breath. “Aren’t you a strong one?”

It growls at me as I open my stats menu as I resume my sprint. ‘Okay,’ I think. ‘Let's put all of my recently acquired stat points into agility’ I finish as I shove my recently acquired points into Agility. Giving me a much needed speed boost, allowing me to leave the group of creatures behind me as I make my getaway. ‘Now that was a close one.’ I state after I ran until I couldn’t see them anymore. I stop to catch my breath, leaning up against a tree as I do so, clumsy swiping away the sweat dripping into my eyes, and my hair out of my face. ‘Now, I need to find a group of weaker mobs that I can farm, ' I contemplate as I start to think of places nearby that I can grind for the rest of the night until I resume my trek towards Horunka village. ‘There's a couple of farming spots, that I vaguely remember from the beta, around the borders of Horunka village. Hmm, how about I go to the one by the pond. Yeah that sounds like a good idea, I’ll go there!’ I decide as I get off the tree and continue my journey. 

It takes me another hour or two until I get to my destination. As I enter the clearing where the pond resides, I decide to be cautious this time before I blatantly enter an area that is still unknown to me. As I crouch walk around the perimeter of the clear I notice a group of thankfully lower level goblins then what I ran away from a while ago. The group sitting around the pond are normal level 3 goblins. ‘Bummer,’ I think,’It would’ve been nicer if they were a level or two above me, that way I could level up faster. Oh well. Not much I can do about it now, might as well ‘use the hand that was dealt to me’ as the saying goes.’ I decide as I crouch walk up to the one closest to me, sliding my short sword into its abdomen with a ding from the system, and putting my hand over it’s mouth to try and keep it silent. Though sadly I wasn’t quick enough in muting him, because, as I look up from my handy work, I notice the rest of the small group charge at me. 

I grunt as I get up from my crouch and pull my sword out of the disappearing corpse of the goblin, sliding my left foot back and putting more weight onto my right foot. I move my right arm, which holds the sword, so that it’s pointing down to the ground while being parallel with my left leg. I close my eyes as I breath slowly in through my nose and out through my mouth, reopening them as I snap them up to stare at the charging group of goblins. I swing my sword at an upward angle, throwing the goblin leading the charge to the side, with another one taking its place.

I swing my sword over my head, bringing it back up front to decapitate the second goblin. I dash forwards after my swing, slamming the pommel of the blade into another goblin's nose, forcing it to jerk backwards with a screech as it holds its bleeding nose. With a twist of my abdomen and a repositioning of my hand, I swing my sword horizontally into a fourth goblin's chest, leaving a deep gash in its torso that glows a bright red. Once I finish my swing I bring the sword over my head and perform an overhead swing, killing it in an explosion of blue shards. I kick out with my left foot, hitting recuperated goblin, pushing it into 3 more of it’s brethren, toppling them into a pile of limbs. I flip my grip on the sword so it’s a backward grip, and then perform a downwards stab into the goblin on top of the pile, finishing it off. I tip the sword out, stomp my left foot on one of the goblins caught in the stumble, crushing it’s head and stabbing the sword into the other goblin, killing it. I catch my breath as I pull the sword out of its corpse, causing it to explode into blue shards. “Hope that was the last one.” I mutter breathlessly, tilting my head back and dropping my arms. I hear footsteps to my left, snapping my head in that direction while being closely followed behind by my left elbow, stunning the goblin with a gouge in it’s chest. I finish it off with a final stab into its chest. “Now that was the last one, has to be.” I say exasperatedly. 

I swipe my left hand down, opening the menu. I click the character, checking how close I am to leveling up. 

“Lv.3 26%”

“Damn, all that work and I’m only 26%?! Ugh!” I whine. ‘Looks like I’ll be here a little while longer.’

Deweydadestroy Lv. 3  
Attributes:  
Charisma:5  
Constitution:5  
Agility:5 (+5)= 10  
Intelligence:5  
Perception:5  
Strength:8  
Willpower:7  
Skills:  
Single handed sword: 4 (+3)= 7


	3. A new Day, A New Sword

Disclaimer: All properties and/or references belong to their respective owners, creator, and/or distributors.

“That..is complete bullshit!” I yell in frustration looking at my stats menu. “I spent all night farming, and the only progress I have to show for it are a couple of drops, 500 Cor, a few new skills, and a couple of level ups in those skills. Not even a level up in my actual level, just an increase in percentage! It was so easy yesterday. What changed?!” I complain, slumping against a tree. “Well better head into town since the NPC should be awake by now.” I mutter, straightening up and starting my walk into town. 

It takes me awhile, but I make it into the village before the sun hits its peak. I wander around the town looking for the NPC that is supposed to hand out the «Secret Medicine of the Forest» quest. I spend the next thirty minutes asking directions to the NPC’s house, when I finally get there. “Alright,” I mutter out, “Let's get this show on the road.”

“There was something very wrong with what that plant did to that poor rabbit.” I mutter with a shiver as I walk out with a newly acquired sword. I look down at the sword and a screen pops up in front of me.  
“Anneal Blade +0”  
“A heirloom from an undescript NPC, asking for a deceptively easy drop from a plant monster.”

It’s a long sword that has a grey pommel that comes to a point, with a black wrapped two hand grip. With a straight cross guard that comes to a point and has two notches on the blade side of the guard. It’s blade is a straight blade that has a dark grey, almost black, center and silver edges. At the base of the blade, where it meets the cross guard, it tapers inward and then outward again, before finally tapering inwards before meeting the cross guard.

After observing the blade, I remember that I was supposed to meet Don in the town. ‘Wow, I completely forgot that I was supposed to meet my only friend in this world after we got separated by a group of intelligent goblins that were being led by a very overpowered goblin. That makes me a bad friend, doesn't it.’ I think with a grimace. I look up at the moon that’s halfway between the ground and being right uptop of me. I grimaced again at the time of ‘day’ it was.’That quest really shouldn't have taken me as long as it did.’ 

I start my search at the town, going from one hotel to another, but don’t find him at any of the hotels. I continue my search by running around the forest surrounding the town, killing everything that comes my way in my panic looking for him. But sadly, don’t find him anywhere nearby, again.

‘God, I hope he’s only moved on to another town and not dead.” I desperately wish.

I spend the next week looking for him, running from town to town and searching every nook and cranny I can find. Searching every inch of ground between each town, killing every mob I come across, when I come across a rather disgusting scene.

‘Your fucking me right?’ I think in disgust as I look at what's happening before me. ‘Are there really PKers already, with everything going on and not even a week in. And they’re attacking a group of kids?!’ I question as the duo of PKers stalk forward, towards a group of terrified children. 

I dash forwards, throwing my left hand forward, throwing the blade out of the way of the children, but damaging myself in the process. I slash my sword horizontally, killing the player. The deceased PKer’s friend dashes to my left and performs a Horizontal Sword Art, cutting into my side, taking almost all of my health and leaving only a sliver left. I panic, performing a Sharp Nail Sword Art skill, killing the last PK’er.

I grab my side as I slump to the ground with a pain filled grunt. I open my inventory with a swipe as I hear a series of tiny footsteps running towards me. I turn my head in their direction as I consume a health potion bringing my health from 3% up to 18%. I see the group of little kids run up to me, but stop a few feet away. “Are you all of you alright?” I question as I stand up with a wince, my side still hurting from the slash by the PKer. I take a step towards them, But the group takes multiple steps back. I stop after the first step and wait for them to respond. We stand in silence for a couple of minutes. The group mutters a quiet ‘thank you’ before running off into the forest around us. But before they’re completely out of sight I yell out, “ It’d probably be safer in the Town of Beginning for the first couple of floors, or until there are designated mob farming areas that are monitored!”

I take a deep breath to catch my breath, before opening my inventory to see what I gained from the PKers. ‘So, I got a couple thousand Col, 3 small health potions, a couple sets of trash gear, and.. Oh a 25 throwing knives, cool.’ I stand up from where I was sitting against the tree, looking up at the sky as I do so. “Ah, so it’s around noon huh?” I mutter out, before I start my jog, resuming the search for my friend.

I stand up from crouching over the exploding corpse of a wolf. I swipe down with my left hand checking the date.

“December 4nd, 2022, 10:45”

I close the window while reminiscing over the couple of weeks since I saved the group of kids from the PK duo. I was able to get the Anneal Blade to +5, which is the best I could do while being stuck on the first floor. A few days ago, I passed through Tolbana, overhearing a meeting a group of high level players were having about the first floor boss Illfang. I was in the city because I heard that the first floor boss labrinth was found, and I needed the newest guide book that stated where it could be found. 

‘Though,’ I think as I turn to an over sized stone door, ‘I don’t remember it being on this side of the floor the last time I played.’ I finish as I start walking over to the door, opening it once I’ve reached it. “Maybe Don’ll be there.” I mutter darkly. I wasn’t able to find him in the weeks since I’ve started my search.

As the door fully opens I catch sight of a fat, red koldbold. “So that's the boss.” I mutter trying to keep quiet. But he seems to notice me anyways the moment I walk into the room. ‘Must be a feature that you can’t sneak into a boss room.’ I conclude mentally as a level 15 Illfang spawns three level 8 minions that charge me. “Damn no Don either, I’ll have to be more careful then what I would have prefered.” I mutter as I brandish my blade to deflect the swing of one of the sentinels, stunning it as I finnish it off with a horizontal slash of my sword. 

I hop backwards, out of the way of an overhead swing from the second sentinel and side step out of the way of the swing from the third one. I dash towards the third sentinel performing the Sword Art Slant, cutting into its chest and killing it. I bring up my sword to deflect the swing from the second sentinel, and roll to the side, out of the way of Illfang's overhead swing from his axe. ‘Alright, the boss is involved now, that's cool.’ I assume, planning my next series of attacks with that in mind. I perform a Sonic Leap, attacking the second sentinel and finishing it off. I roll forwards between the bosses legs, out of the way of his horizontal swing, stabbing his calf as I jump back up. He stumbles forward, allowing me to perform a Vertical Slash before I hop backwards, out of range of a swing backwards from his axe. I strafe back to his front while he stands backup. I perform another Sonic Leap, when he blocks it with his shield, stunning me long enough for him to perform a horizontal swing across my chest, taking a chunk of health and throwing me back and causing me to roll as I hit the ground. I groan as I stumble back to my feet. “Damn, got careless.” I mutter out as I try and down a health potion, but have to roll to the side to avoid another swing of Illfang’s axe. I jump back to my feet with a stumble, when I realize that I’m missing my sword. “How the hell did I lose my sword!?” I question. “It’s a fucking game, is that even possible!?” I panic as I frantically swing my head around the area, trying to locate the dropped equipment. 

I manage to spot it before I have to dodge another swing from the boss. I pull a throwing knife off of my belt, holding it in a reverse grip. “Time to do a poor reenactment of Naruto.” I say as I block another swing from the boss, sending me stumbling back after a sliver of my health is taken off, leaving my health bar in the middle of yellow. “This is going to suck massively.” I mutter as I start sprinting towards my sword, which now lies on the complete opposite side of the room. “How the hell did it get that far since I last spotted it?!” I question, confused. 

I roll to the side to dodge another downward swing from the boss, stabbing it with the improvised dagger in my hand, depleting it of its first health bar. It lets out a roar, puffing its chest out as it summons three level 9 sentinels this time. As It was summoning it’s minions, I broke into a dead sprint, in a desperate attempt to get to my sword. I make it halfway there before I have to dive forwards to avoid a swing from one of the minions. ‘How the hell is it faster than me?!’ I question in panic. ‘I have 20 in my Agility?!’

I jump to my feet in time to avoid a downward swing of its sword. I whip around, performing a Horizontal Sword Art, frantically trying to finish it off so I can get to my sword. I twirl around the first sentinel, cutting it across it’s throat, killing it as I do so. I duck down under a horizontal swing from the second sentinel, when I get knocked in the side trying to contort my body to avoid the swing from the third sentinel. I launch into the third sentinel using my left foot to propel me. I stab the blade into the third sentinel, killing it.I kick out behind me, launching the second sentinel away from my and into a heap a couple of feet away from me. I continue my dash towards my sword, when I have to roll onto it to avoid the swing from Illfang. I pick up my sword in time to turn the overhead swing of the second sentinel into a blade lock. I look across it’s shoulder and widen my eyes as I allow the sentinel to over power me, forcing me down, and allowing me to kick it into the oncoming swing of Illfang’s axe. The sentinel dies the moment the axe connects with its side, exploding in a shower of blue shards, observing Illfang’s vision. When the shower ends the boss leans forwards with a swing of it’s axe, only to hit nothing. It straightens up, confused, when I pop up behind it and perform a Vorpal Strike, dealing a critical hit from it being a sneak attack, dropping it into its third bar of health as it lets out a roar.

I dash backwards, downing enough potions to barely raise me back into green, as I contemplate my next move. “Okay,” I mutter, “Illfang, is going to pull out a talwar and is going to summon another three sentinels, and if the last six are any indication, these three are goin to be level 10. Only a couple of levels below me. Shit, this isn’t looking good.” I conclude, when I feel something move down my side. I slap the area where I feel the sensation and wince in pain. I look down in confusion and see a gash in my side dripping blood.

“What the hell?!” I whisper. But before I can contemplate the impossibility that is me bleeding, I hear charging coming from in front of me. I whip my head up and see Illfang and his posse of level 10 sentinels coming at me. But something seems wrong. The weapon Illfang is holding is a nodachi and not a talwar. It has too skinny of a blade to be talwar, and the only other weapon that is that proportionally that long and is still curved can be a nodachi. 

I dash to my left, avoiding the slash from the first sentinel, and hop backwards to dodge the upper cut slice from the second, and I dash forward, performing a slash in an upward angle, dropping the thirds health to half. I roll to the right dodging the boss and swing around to cut at him, taking a couple of percent off of his final health bar. I dash to the left and then hop backwards avoiding the attacks of the third and first sentinel. I roll to my right, avoiding the second sentinel’s horizontal slash. I leap forwards out of the roll, swinging in an upward motion, finishing off the third sentinel. I roll again to avoid the bosses charge, sticking my foot out to try and trip him. But the boss jumps over my foot and slides to a stop a couple of yards on the other side of it. I swing around catching the first sentinel in the chest as it attempts to ‘sneak’ attack me, taking a good chunk of it’s health, leaving it with only a sliver and a bleeding effect. I leap to the side to avoid the second sentinel and then another leap forward to avoid the boss. I turn around as I rip a throwing knife from my belt, hitting the first sentinel and killing it. I go to grab another one, but I get hit from behind, causing me to fly forwards and into the second sentinel, falling into a pile of flailing limbs. I rip a knife from my belt and start stabbing aimlessly at the remaining sentinel, eventually killing out of pure luck. 

I stumble to my feet downing another potion as I do so. I turn around, sloppy bringing my sword up to block the bosses swing, taking a sliver of health off of my health bar, leaving me in the middle of yellow. I turn to the side letting the nodachi slide off of my blade and into the ground getting stuck in it. I lunge forward, stabbing my sword into its side. I use my sword as a pivot point and start climbing it’s back. I rip my sword out as I reach it’s head and start stabbing it’s neck and head as fast as I can. 

Eventually the boss topples forward and hits the ground with a slam, exploding in a shower of white lights and blue shards. I wearily stand up, hold my side as I do so. I drop my left hand, opening my inventory and start scrolling, looking for any health potions I have left.   
When I start drinking a health potion that was hidden away in the inventory, I hear footsteps fast approaching me from behind. I choke on the potion as I fall to the side, letting a figure fly by me. I fumble with my sword trying to bring it up, ready to defend myself, when I hear someone out, “Woh, woh. Chill dude, we’re not here to hurt you.” behind me. I turn around to see a stout figure make its way over to me. As the figure gets closer, the details of the figure become clear, and clearer. “Hey man, We’re not here to hurt, we just want to know what happened here, and if you had anything to do with it. Maybe find out why your covered in what looks like blood.” The figure says as it gets even closer to me. When it’s within a few feet from me, I notice who it is. 

“Don? Is that you?”

**Author's Note:**

> There you go, the first chapter of my first fanfic. If only I was in a game, maybe I would've gotten achievement. But I'm not so no achievement, so no special feelings in my chest that makes me feel all warm and gooey.


End file.
